Diet Quality Indices Used in Australian and New Zealand Adults: A Systematic Review and Critical Appraisal
Open Access
- 9 December 2020
- Vol. 12 (12), 3777
- https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12123777
Abstract
Distilling the complexity of overall diet into a simple measure or summative score by data reduction methods has become a common practice in nutritional epidemiology. Recent reviews on diet quality indices (DQI) have highlighted the importance of sound construction criteria and validation. The aim of this current review was to identify and critically appraise all DQI used within Australian and New Zealand adult populations. Twenty-five existing DQI were identified by electronic searching in Medline and hand searching of reference lists. DQI were constructed based on the respective national dietary guidelines and condition-specific recommendations. For preferable features of DQI, six captured the dimensions of adequacy, moderation and balance; five had a nested structure; 12 consisted of foods, food groups and nutrients; 11 used metric scoring systems and most of those with metric scales used normative cutoff points. Food frequency questionnaires, either alone or with other methods, were the most common dietary assessment method used in 20 DQI. For evaluation of DQI, construct validity and relative validity are reported. Based on our critical appraisal, Dietary Guideline Index (DGI), Dietary Guideline Index-2013 (DGI-2013), Total Diet Score (TDS), Healthy Eating Index for Australian Adults-2013 (HEIFA-2013), and Aussie-Diet Quality Index (Aussie-DQI) were the preferred DQI used in Australian adults according to dimension, indicator selection, scoring criteria and evaluation. Further work is needed to enhance the construction of all Australian and New Zealand DQI, especially in terms of dimension and structure, for alignment with recommended construction criteria.Keywords
This publication has 125 references indexed in Scilit:
- Mediterranean diet adherence and self-reported psychological functioning in an Australian sampleAppetite, 2013
- Diet Quality, Measured by Fruit and Vegetable Intake, Predicts Weight Change in Young WomenJournal of Obesity, 2013
- The development and evaluation of the Australian child and adolescent recommended food score: a cross-sectional studyNutrition Journal, 2012
- Adherence to dietary guidelines and 15-year risk of all-cause mortalityBritish Journal of Nutrition, 2012
- Nutrition status of primary care patients with depression and anxietyAustralian Journal of Primary Health, 2012
- Diet quality and change in anthropometric measures: 15-year longitudinal study in Australian adultsBritish Journal of Nutrition, 2011
- Higher Diet Quality Does Not Predict Lower Medicare Costs but Does Predict Number of Claims in Mid-Aged Australian WomenNutrients, 2011
- A New Dietary Inflammatory Index Predicts Interval Changes in Serum High-Sensitivity C-Reactive Protein1–3Journal of Nutrition, 2009
- Food variety is associated with less macrovascular disease in those with type II diabetes and their healthy controls.Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 1989